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Newborns are dying at “alarmingly high” rates in countries that are poor, conflict-ridden or have weak institutions, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said Tuesday in a new report, which reveals that babies born in these places are 50 times more likely to die in the first month of life than those born in some wealthier nations. 

A nuclear threat on the Korean Peninsula and a quagmire in the Middle East are “two qualitative changes” that further eroded global security over the past year, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres told an annual conference on international security policy in Munich, Germany.

Strengthening the rule of law and improving the national police and the judicial system in Haiti will require political will on the part of the authorities, and the United Nations is determined to support this goal, said Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Bintou Keita.

More than 1,000 highly vulnerable refugees have been evacuated out of Libya since November by the UN refugee agency, which is searching for “durable solutions” for these people in third countries.

More than 10,000 civilians were killed or wounded in the Afghanistan conflict during 2017, a nine per cent drop over 2016, according to a United Nations report out Thursday which also revealed rising casualties caused by suicide bombings and attacks using improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

Over 22,000 desperate Congolese refugees crossed Lake Albert to Uganda last week, with four drowning when their boat capsized on the perilous journey from the conflict-hit eastern regions of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

As many countries prepare to mark Valentine’s Day, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is calling on people to end their “toxic relationship” with single-use plastic and find “new love,” with more environmentally sustainable options.

Lieutenant Colonel Katie Hislop of the United Kingdom said she was happy to serve as a role model for young women considering a career with the armed forces. The mother of two was the only woman to head a military contingent at the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS).

Bollywood is highlighting the issue of menstrual hygiene in a new comedy-drama that aims to break taboos around sanitary pads.

The human cost of South Sudan’s long-running conflict has reached “epic proportions” with the number of refugees set to rise beyond three million by the end of this year, potentially making it Africa’s largest refugee crisis since the mid-1990s, the head of the UN refugee agency said on Thursday.